This invention relates to a tire band ply lubricant composition of matter and more particularly to a water soluble tire band ply lubricant powder.
The use of a band ply lubricant, an essential component in the manufacture of tires, is well known in the art. In the manufacture of a tire the shaping is caused by inflating a rubber bag inside the green tire carcass to force the tire into shape against the mold and said bag must subsequently be released from the inside of the vulcanized tire without causing defects. To accomplish this a band ply lubricant or release, also sometimes referred to as a raw tire or green tire lubricant is applied to the tubeless liner or number one ply (i.e. band ply) of the raw or green tire. The band ply lubricant serves a number of useful functions. It not only reduces friction between the inside of the raw tire and bag and allows for optimum slip of the raw tire during the shaping process when the raw tire and curing bladder (or bag) are in friction with one another under steam or air pressure, but also serves to channel the trapped air and/or gases during high temperature/high pressure steam or water curing, resulting from the chemical reaction of vulcanization, and allows them to escape from between the highly pressurized bag and tire interface. Finally, at the termination of the vulcanization cycle the essential function of the applied band ply lubricant is to allow for the final release and removal of the bag from inside the tire at a friction level of the lowest possible order.
In recent years solvent based band ply lubricants have in general given way to aqueous systems in order to avoid such problems as heat stability, air pollution, and the like, that may be attendant to the use of hydrocarbon solvents. However, aqueous based band ply lubricant systems are not without their own disadvantages. For example, entirely preformulated aqueous systems may not afford the tire manufacturer with any processing latitude with regard to making different types of tires and also possess the obvious drawbacks that accompany the handling of large amounts of liquid such as the need for a large storage area and the need for specific transportation equipment. Moreover entirely preformulated systems are, in general, aqueous emulsions and may also experience stability problems in the areas of ingredient settling, compaction and/or degradation during storage and/or transportation or upon inordinent temperature changes such as freeze-thaw cycles that might be encountered during same.
Such disadvantages of entirely preformulated aqueous band ply lubricants may be overcome or at least minimized by supplying the tire manufacturer with a liquid lubricant concentrate to which the manufacturer may then add filler and water to prepare his own end-use aqueous band ply lubricant or by supplying the tire manufacturer with a filler/liquid lubricant concentrate mud to which the tire manufacturer need only add water to obtain the end-use aqueous band ply lubricant. However, boh such methods can not be considered entirely satisfactory due to the burden they place on the tire manufacturer. For example, the use of liquid lubricant concentrates requires the tire manufacturer to handle large amounts of filler, generally mica, which due to its dustiness can cause unacceptable environmental problems in the plant of the tire manufacturer, while the filler/liquid concentrate muds have a handling disadvantage in that they are non-flowable semi-solids which appear to lead to aqueous emulsions when dispersed in water. Moreover, such lubricants concentrates require, when mixed with a filler and water, the use of specialized high-shear mixing equipment (e.g. a Cowles Mixer of the like) in order to produce the desired homogeneously mixed end-use aqueous band ply lubricant composition. The filler/liquid concentrate muds have a handling disadvantage in that they are non-flowable.
Applicant has now discovered a water soluble tire band ply lubricant powder which can be readily and simply dispersed in water to form an efficient and economical aqueous band ply lubricant composition for use by tire manufacturers.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a tire band ply lubricant powder which is particularly useful for providing formulated aqueous solutions of said powder for employment by tire manufacturers. Other objects and advantages of this invention will become readily apparent from the following description and appended claims.
More specifically this invention may be described as a water soluble tire band ply lubricant powder consisting of, based upon 100 parts by weight of said powder (A) from about 63 to about 85.45 parts by weight of an inorganic filler selected from the class consisting of mica particles and a mixture of mica and talc or silicate particles, said mixture containing up to 10 parts by weight of talc or silicate particles the remainder being mica particles, and containing adsorbed on the surface of said filler.
(B) from about 5 to about 14 parts by weight of a water soluble polyoxyalkylene glycol.
(C) from about 2 to about 6 parts by weight of an organopolysiloxane-polyoxyalkylene copolymer fluid having the average formula ##STR1## wherein R represents a monovalent hydrocarbon radical having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, R' represents a divalent alkylene radical having from 2 to 18 carbon atoms, R" represents a monovalent hydrocarbon radical having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, x has a value of 1 to 300, y has a value of 1 to 25, n has a value of 3 to 50, and m has a value of 3 to 50, said siloxane copolymer having an average molecular weight of about 600 to about 100,000,
(D) from about 7 to about 15 parts by weight of a trihydrocarbonsiloxy end-blocked dihydrocarbon siloxane fluid having a viscosity at about 25.degree. C. of from about 200 to about 100,000 centistokes,
(E) from about 0.10 to about 0.35 parts by weight of a nonionic organo substituted cellulosic viscosity controller,
(F) from about 0.10 to about 0.45 parts by weight of an organic anti-bacterial agent; and
(G) from about 0.35 to about 1.2 parts by weight of the aqueous reaction product of an admixture consisting of (i) from about 0.10 to about 0.20 parts by weight of an organosubstituted benzoic acid, (ii) from about 0.15 to about 0.2 parts by weight of an organic amine, and (iii) from about 0.10 to about 0.80 parts by weight of water.